CELPIP Speaking Task 5 — Comparing and Persuading

1 You and your partner are choosing a place to live. Pick one of the two apartments below and persuade your partner that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Apartment A — downtown
  One bedroom, small, above a busy street. A ten-minute walk to both of your jobs. Rent is higher and there is no parking.
• Apartment B — near the suburbs
  Two bedrooms, a balcony, quiet street. Rent is lower and parking is included, but the commute is fifty minutes each way by bus.

Speaking to: your partner

2 Your father is helping you buy a used car. Choose one of the two cars below and persuade him that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Car A — older, cheaper
  Twelve years old, low price, new winter tires. High mileage, and the mechanic says the brakes will need work this year.
• Car B — newer, dearer
  Four years old, still under warranty, good on fuel. It costs almost twice as much and you would need a small loan.

Speaking to: your father

3 Your family has one free weekend this spring. Choose one of the two trips below and persuade your sister that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Trip A — a cabin by a lake
  Three hours away, quiet, no phone signal. Everyone cooks together. Nothing to do if it rains all weekend.
• Trip B — two nights in the city
  A hotel near the museums, plenty to do indoors, restaurants nearby. It costs more and the children would share one room.

Speaking to: your sister

4 You and your friend want to take an evening course together. Choose one of the two courses below and persuade your friend that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Course A — public speaking
  Eight weeks, Tuesday evenings at the community centre, low fee. You practise in front of the group every week.
• Course B — basic bookkeeping
  Twelve weeks, online, higher fee, ends with a certificate that some local employers ask for. Most of the work is alone.

Speaking to: your friend

5 Your community group must pick one fundraising event. Choose one of the two below and persuade the committee member you are speaking to that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Event A — a pancake breakfast
  Cheap to run, families come, needs fifteen volunteers on one morning. It usually raises a small amount.
• Event B — a silent auction
  Raises much more, but you must ask local businesses for donations for two months before the night.

Speaking to: a member of the committee

6 Your team can move to one of two work schedules. Choose one of the options below and persuade your manager that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Schedule A — four longer days
  Ten hours a day, Monday to Thursday, every Friday off. Customers cannot reach the team on Fridays.
• Schedule B — five days, two from home
  Normal hours, Tuesday and Thursday from home. Everyone is reachable all week, but the team meets face to face less.

Speaking to: your manager

7 You and your partner must book one summer program for your son. Choose one of the two below and persuade your partner that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Program A — a day camp in the neighbourhood
  Two weeks, eight in the morning until five, a short walk away. Cheaper, and he sleeps at home. He already knows half the children who go.
• Program B — a week at an overnight camp
  Seven nights beside a lake, canoeing and hiking, nobody he knows. Costs more, and he has never been away from home before.

Speaking to: your partner

8 You and your brother must get to a family wedding in another province. Choose one of the two ways below and persuade him that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — drive there together
  Two days on the road each way. Cheap if you share the fuel, and you can carry the gifts and stop where you like. Somebody has to drive all of it.
• Option B — fly and rent a car
  Four hours door to door. Much more expensive, and the rental has to be booked now, but you would both arrive rested and miss only one day of work.

Speaking to: your brother

9 You and your roommate are choosing one home internet package. Choose one of the two below and persuade your roommate that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Package A — basic, no contract
  Low monthly price, enough for browsing and one video at a time, cancel any month. It slows down in the evening when the building is busy.
• Package B — fast, two-year contract
  Fast enough for both of you to work from home at once. The price rises after the first year and leaving early costs a cancellation fee.

Speaking to: your roommate

10 The basement of your house needs new flooring. Choose one of the two ways below and persuade your husband that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — hire a contractor
  Done in three days by people who do it every week, with a two-year warranty on the work. It costs about three times as much as the materials alone.
• Option B — do it yourselves with a friend
  Much cheaper, and your friend has done it before. It would take most of four weekends, and a mistake would have to be paid for twice.

Speaking to: your husband

11 You and your cousin are organising a gift for your parents’ anniversary. Choose one of the two below and persuade your cousin that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Gift A — three nights away for the two of them
  A quiet hotel by the water, just the two of them. They rarely travel. Nobody else in the family would be part of it.
• Gift B — a party at the community hall
  Forty relatives and neighbours in one room, photographs, a meal. It costs less, but it takes two months of organising and your parents dislike surprises.

Speaking to: your cousin

12 Your street can have one of two safety changes this year. Choose one of the options below and persuade your city councillor that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Change A — speed bumps along the street
  Cheap, installed in a week, and traffic would slow down all day. Snow ploughs and the buses would have a harder time in winter.
• Change B — a lit crossing at the school corner
  Helps the children who cross there twice a day. It costs far more, would take a year, and would do nothing about speed along the rest of the street.

Speaking to: your city councillor

13 Your mother has waited a year for a family doctor and can now take one of the two places below. Choose one and persuade her that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Clinic A — a family health team
  A doctor, a nurse and a dietitian who share her file, and appointments two evenings a week. It is forty minutes away by bus and the first opening is in three months.
• Clinic B — a walk-in clinic on her street
  Five minutes from her door, open every day, and she would be seen this week. She would see a different doctor each time and nobody would follow her blood pressure over the years.

Speaking to: your mother

14 Your father is leaving hospital after a hip operation and needs six weeks of recovery. Choose one of the two arrangements below and persuade your uncle that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Plan A — three weeks in a rehabilitation residence
  Physiotherapy every morning and staff on the floor at night, so he would walk on his own sooner. He would be an hour from the family and visits are only in the afternoon.
• Plan B — recovery at home with visits
  He keeps his own flat and his own routine, and a physiotherapist comes twice a week. Somebody in the family has to be there every morning, and he would get his strength back more slowly.

Speaking to: your uncle

15 The settlement centre can place you in only one of the two programs below this autumn. Choose one and persuade your employment counsellor that it is the right one for you. Compare it with the other one.

• Program A — a four-month English course
  Three evenings a week until February, built around the language you need at work. You could take no extra shifts while it runs, and it ends with no job offer of any kind.
• Program B — a six-week job search workshop
  It ends in interviews with employers who hire through the centre, so you could be working before the winter. It does nothing about the language that stopped you in your last two interviews.

Speaking to: your employment counsellor

16 You have to decide how to spend the next six months while you look for work in your own field. Choose one of the two below and persuade your wife that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — a volunteer placement in your field
  Two days a week in a laboratory doing the work you trained for, with a supervisor who would give you a reference here. It pays nothing for six months.
• Option B — a paid part-time job outside your field
  Money every two weeks and mornings free to keep applying. At the end of it nobody in your own field would know your name.

Speaking to: your wife

17 You and your partner must arrange care for your two-year-old before you go back to work. Choose one of the two below and persuade your partner that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — a licensed daycare centre
  Open from seven, trained staff, a place free from March. It is twenty-five minutes in the wrong direction and they send children home at the first sign of a fever.
• Option B — home care two doors away
  Four children in a house on your street, and she is relaxed about a late pick-up. One carer means no cover when she is ill, and she closes for three weeks in the summer.

Speaking to: your partner

18 Your daughter starts grade two in September and you must register her at one of the two schools below. Choose one and persuade your husband that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• School A — the school on your street
  A five-minute walk, and the children she already plays with go there. The doors close at three, so one of you would have to leave work early every day.
• School B — the school by the river
  Care until six every evening and a breakfast club in the morning. It is a forty-minute bus ride each way and she would start the year knowing nobody.

Speaking to: your husband

19 Your flight home has been cancelled and the airline has offered the two ways below. Choose one and persuade your aunt, who is travelling with you, that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — the seats the airline is holding
  Two days from now, with a hotel and meals paid for while you wait. Nothing else about the trip changes, but you would both miss two days of work.
• Option B — fly tonight to the next city
  Seats are free on tonight’s flight to a city three hours away, and you would drive from there in the morning. If that flight is delayed as well, the airline stops helping you.

Speaking to: your aunt

20 You and your wife have one week of holiday left to use before December. Choose one of the two ways of using it below and persuade her that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — one full week in March
  The children are off school that week, so the whole family is free at the same time and you could go somewhere together. Everything is booked out early and the roads are full.
• Option B — five long weekends
  One Friday a month from now until the autumn, so there is always a short break ahead. You would never be away long enough to go far, and the children would be at school on those days.

Speaking to: your wife

21 You have two job offers and must answer both by Friday. Choose one and persuade your father that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Offer A — a permanent job at a small firm
  Twelve people, a fixed schedule, a pension and paid training. The pay is what you earn now, and the person above you is not leaving for years.
• Offer B — a one-year contract at a large company
  A quarter more pay, a bigger title, and work that would look strong on any application. Nothing is promised after twelve months and the team is rebuilt every year.

Speaking to: your father

22 Your department is closing and your employer has offered you the two ways below of staying with the company. Choose one and persuade your supervisor that it is the right one for you. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — the same work at night
  Your pay, your years of service and the job you already know, on the shift that runs from eleven until seven. You would see your children only at weekends.
• Option B — a daytime job in another department
  Normal hours and your evenings at home. You would start again as the newest person, lose your years of service, and learn a different system from the beginning.

Speaking to: your supervisor

23 You and your roommate are moving to a new apartment and must tell the landlord which starting date you want. Choose one of the two below and persuade your roommate that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Plan A — take the new place a month early
  You would carry things over slowly, paint before the furniture arrives and clean the old flat properly. You would be paying two rents for one month.
• Plan B — move everything on the last day
  One long Saturday, one rent, and it is behind you. If the keys or the truck are late, you are standing on the street with everything you own.

Speaking to: your roommate

24 Your parents are moving into a smaller apartment and cannot take all their furniture. Choose one of the two ways below of dealing with it and persuade your sister that it is the better choice. Compare it with the other one.

• Option A — a storage unit for a year
  Nothing has to be decided while they are tired from the move, and the pieces from the old house stay in the family. It costs money every month for things they may never use again.
• Option B — sell or give it away now
  One decision, made once, and what it brings in helps with the move. If they want a table or a bed later it must be bought again, and the pieces they grew up with would be gone.

Speaking to: your sister